End of the century (plant)

We have a little place in Arizona where we can retreat when Central New York winters become too long and gray. I spent 2 weeks there by myself in February and when I left, the agave in the front yard was its usual pointy sharp self. Michael and I came out in March and lo and behold, it had sprouted a 6 – 8 foot shoot. This is the beginning of the end for the century plant which only lives for 25 to 30 year

You almost can’t see me.

New growth

anyway. The name century plant is overly optimistic. A return visit in May was surprising, it was close to 30 feet tall. We admired it for a week and then started to wonder what would happen when it fell over. The leaves were starting to wither and brown, but this is the desert. We asked the gardener who was working on the common areas around our house to take a look. He said, “That is very dangerous.” One chainsaw later and goodbye stalk! It was very heavy, probably several hundred pounds, so it was a good thing we whacked it before it whacked us or the car. Now, it is just ugly.